


Edward Orson: Storm of the Living GemStones Part 6

by Greyforrester



Series: Edward Orson Stories [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Guyver, Marvel, Star Trek, Stargate - All Media Types, Steven Universe (Cartoon), 宝石の国 | Houseki no Kuni | Land of the Lustrous (Anime & Manga)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:14:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23493028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greyforrester/pseuds/Greyforrester
Summary: The epic finale to 'Storm'
Series: Edward Orson Stories [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1688788





	Edward Orson: Storm of the Living GemStones Part 6

**===*** A ravenous swarm slowly devours the branches of a tree. As the branches grow and multiply, so does the horde, chewing down them. Eventually they will cease to grow and the horde will turn tail to consume the rest of the tree.***===**

**Chapter 22: Hearts And Souls**

The Doctor awoke to find himself lying on orange dirt. As he climbed to his feet he could see little else as he gazed along the mountainous landscape and up to the equally orange sky. He recalled his last memories;

He had emerged from the TARDIS, no, he had been flung from it with great force by its other inhabitant; a new acquaintance, a Gem called Peridot. He had sent several Borg drones inside his time machine to retrieve her. Some had been mangled by her ability to finely control magnetism, however one disrupted her with a sonic blast. His last memory was of linking her by the gem on her forehead to the Borg's computer.

He clutched his head, wracked with guilt of what the collective compelled him to do and at how, once again, his sense of self had been stolen from him. He fell to his hands and knees as he began to breathe hoarsely and deeply. He clenched his mouth tightly shut for what seemed like an eternity until he came to a realisation; he felt no air and no sensation of dirt on his fingers. His pulse should've been racing but he failed to find it anywhere on him.

As he paid more attention to his senses he began to find the experience dream-like. He picked a direction, walking endlessly and aimlessly. As he trudged he examined the unchanging landscape; the curving dunes and the pointed hills, all orange, he noticed their resemblance to the human head and parts thereof.

“Hello, Doctor,” he heard a nearby voice call. He turned to face a Raven-haired and pale-skinned girl.

He forced a change of expression. “Ah, and a 'hello' back to you!” he greeted, smiling, “good to see a face on top of a pair of shoulders. You seem to know me, so what say you introduce yourself?”

“Ahahaha, I'm Veritas Umbra, but you can call me 'Vert' for short.”

“Good to know. I like a short, sweet name.”

“Aren't you curious as to where we are?” She asked, knowingly.

“Some dream-land I assume. A dreadfully dull dream, however, but preferable to where I was when I was awake.”

“You mean being a Borg drone commander? Leading an assault on your favourite planet? By the way, you're not asleep, you're dead.”

The Doctor spluttered, confused, “W-well, I guess… wait, I'm dead?”

“Edward said to consider it your debt for having killed his friends repaid.” Vert said callously.

“Edward? He did this? He of all people should realise the gravity of this situation. I thought him better than to indulge in the revenge!”

“He killed me too, he did it when he had the gauntlet with five of the Infinity GemStones.”

“Hah! It seems even you weren't immune to his wrath. He's lived through more adversity than any one man should but it seems the allure of power has corrupted him.”

“Sounds like you've had personal experience with such power,” Veritas condescended.

“Yes, I've had my hands on the means to end an army of extremely proficient murderers before they could spread throughout the universe; I've had my hands on the Key to Time, an artifact based on the Time GemStone to restore the equilibrium that said gem causes; and I rejected the opportunity to rule over my kind in their bloated, inefficient bureaucracy.”

“How magnanimous of you,” she said drily.

“I wonder, how did you come to know him?”

“He made me, he is my Driver, I am his Blade.”

“Ah, Alrest. I've heard of that periphery reality but haven't had the chance to visit it yet. So, you've not just known his side but were born and raised on his rhetoric. I shudder to think of how he's abused this. Has he told you about the time, the age where he wore another's face, he arranged a dictatorship. The war that ended in the genocide of the T'au's races. If you want an example from this timeline, how about that time he-”

“Had his mind warped by an eldritch creature? I know, he's showed me the devastation he and that creature wrought on the Dakotas. He spent decades teaching me about Alrest before sending me out there to see it for myself. There I learned how isolating my advanced knowledge was, when I returned to him and the Architect I knew how they felt, how _you_ feel, Doctor. You're a man of many self-illusions but you're resistant to the idea of affecting meaningful change, particularly with your beloved Earth. Perhaps, on some level, still internalise your Time-Lord rhetoric, you still believe yourself above the likes of Earthens.”

“How would I go about 'affecting meaningful change'?”

“Save it from itself. Alas, that's a task Edward's taken it upon himself to complete. Earth is tearing itself apart, threatening to shatter. You two could've got on famously, together, until you let those Zygons in. I wonder, when you inevitably find the Earth rent in twain, will you care? I imagine you would, but, will it be too late to work with Edward to stitch it back together?”

The Doctor, exhausted, slumped at the foot of a nose-hill. Veritas dropped down and sat at the foot of the same hill, keeping some distance apart from him. He turned to her and asked, irritably, “What **is** this place anyway?”

“Oh, pardon me, we're inside the Soul GemStone,” Vert stated.

“You're serious, aren't you? I wasn't even sure it existed, much less the others. We developed only a working knowledge on monad particles or 'Ether' if you will. Our society, to it's detriment, focused on fording the spacetime continuum, and then wanting as little as possible to do with it, the fools. The idea of the soul seemed to be poetic license at best, as opposed to science.”

“Well, you best start believing in the soul, that's all that's left of you. Eventually our souls will begin to blend together, don't believe me? You're leaning up against the remains of someone's individual soul right now.”

“So, Edward's plan was for me to be spiritually consumed? Wonderful,” the Doctor commented sarcastically.

“Not quite, his idea was something simpler and more agreeable, to you anyway; indigestion.”

**Chapter 23: To The Cradle And To The Grave**

Edward emerged from dancing white lights standing in front of a building labelled 'Hargreave-Rasch'. He scanned the New York City skyline as dusk set on it. Several guards, armoured head to toe carrying rifles converged on him.

“President Hargreave will see you now,” a guard announced. The escort detail rushed Edward inside, through sterile corridors packed with equipment, and into a lift. The lift opened into much more ornately decorated rooms, also a mess. They coaxed him through a drape and into a hall; two suits of high-tech muscle armour stood on each side of the rug path, to his right he could see two levels of bookshelves and at the end of the rug there sat a desk underneath an enormous screen. The picture of an old man appeared on the screen.

“Hello, Edward. It's a pleasure to have your company,” Hargreave said in a deep, aged baritone.

“I want to get this over and done with too. I'll be out of your pre-rendered hair just as soon as I can,” Edward said uncomfortably.

“My apologies. I seem to have underestimated how much stress these last few months have put you through. If I may be so bold as to urge you to loosen up, young man, you're not the only one bearing great weight on your shoulders. Follow my example and give our visiting informant his due hospitality,” he urged.

The screen flickered to the image of a different old man, his hair much longer than the other man's. His clothing resembled Victorian London fashion.

“So, you're Edward,” the strange old man commented with a refined English accent.

“Yeah, you better be the informant,” Edward said, churlishly.

“You really don't recognise me, do you?” he said, taunting the young man in the hall.

“I don't really care either,” Edward stated, apathetically.

“You will when you hear the other name I know you by; 'Jack the Ripper'.”

The bottom of Edward's eye twitched as he glared at the unknown man on the screen.

“I've never gone by that name,” Edward snarled.

“I was there, Jack, there when you conspired with the barren Lady and when you almost brought your Assassin brothers down.”

“That. Was not. ME!” he snapped, “I was trying to talk the Lady out of that madness.”

“There's no reason for anyone to believe you.”

“Because I LOVED her, that's reason enough.”

“Y-you were in love with my...” the old man trailed off, Edward noticed this change in tone.

“Your who? Wait, you're... no, that can't be... you're Ciel Phantomhive!” Edward induced.

The old man looked away from him. Edward walked closer to the giant screen.

“Wow, I though I killed you. In fact, I'd swear I did, and not too long ago. For a man in the middle of his second century of living, you're looking pretty good, anyway,” Edward grinned audaciously, adding, “now, if you tell me what I want to know I'll look past your accusation and what I want to know is; Where the hell did that hybrid come from?”

“Fine, he came from a facility in the Tunguska Sea. Sects of the Russian Templars have started playing coy with us, it seems the current administration is looking to find strength in isolation and warring with the West again. They thought they could appropriate your might by simply cloning you. What they got, you might imagine, something quite different, so they sent it to you so one would dispose of the other.”

“Tunguska Sea, understood.” Edward turned to leave the way he came when he noticed a bookshelf on the second level slid outward.

“I'm sorry, Edward, I've lost control of most of this facility. They won't be able to teleport you unless you get outside. You've got to leave fast, this facility will be a part of the sea before long. Take the exit through the bookshelf,” Hargreave said.

Edward jogged up a stairway to the second level and shunted aside the protruding shelf. He ran through a brief series of sterile rooms, knocking aside boxes, before he arrived outside. He could see the ship floating above the city fire several missiles in his direction. A light consumed him and he found himself standing in the Titor's transporter room. “Hit the ship floating over New York, they just fired on the Hargreave-Rasch building.”

“I think it'd be better if we head off to that facility, assuming they told you,” Pearl insisted.

“No! They have to learn to refuse orders from the Illuminati!”

“They don't know that it's from the Illuminati! As far as they're concerned it's just another order from above, something of which your demand is _not_! We're heading for the facility and that's final.”

“Fine,” Edward conceded, “it's in the Tunguska Sea.”

A couple of hours later, the Titor floated far above the space over Russia. An inland sea could be seen within it's borders, even from so high up. The ship descended into the atmosphere, coming to a halt above sparse clouds. Edward headed over to the edge of the ship and anchored himself.

“I can barely make out what looks like an oil rig,” Edward observed.

“Copy that, narrowing sensor sweep to beneath it,” Garnet said. A few moments passed before she delivered a verdict, “definitely not drilling going beneath it, EM readings indicate a primitive fusion reactor.”

Edward extended his left hand and a gargantuan column of ice burst from the surface of the sea. He then clenched it, switching to drawing dark blue energy from the gem. The column began to float over to above the fake rig. After several minutes of idle hovering it dropped, smashing into the structure and sending it under the water.

“Surface exit's cut off now, you can trigger the jamming pulses now,” He reported.

“Get inside, so we can beam you first,” Garnet requested.

“I have a better, quicker way,” he said, “A-trans!”

His armour's chest and boots turned a dark blue, a pair of fin-like protrusions materialised on his back and to the sides of his shins. Detaching himself from the ship, he leapt into the water. He clenched his left hand again, flooding his body with a purple energy. He rocketed through the water and quickly arrived at an underground structure, built piecemeal out of hundreds of cubic and rectangular containers. He came to a halt underneath one and lasered a hole to pass through. He emerged in a dull grey corridor.

“A-trans!” The blue armour turned purple; a white mask materialised over his eyes, it's ears pointed backwards, a muted red scarf unfurled over his back. He bolted through passage after passage until he stumbled upon a group of identical men, bald and slightly diminutive. They all wore an expressionless face, except one, who grimaced a little.

“For you to be here, I must be running out of important friends,” the grimacing man said in Russian.

“It's worth asking yourself if you actually have any friends. Ciel Phantomhive sure was willing to burn bridges between him and you, 'President comrade'.”

“A question I'm sure you've asked yourself. As you can see from my present company, I shan't need to be all that trusting.”

“I wonder if there's enough of your doppelgangers for me to get bored with cutting your visage down?” Edward asked. Globs of light emerged from his hand taking shape into and materialising his double-ended sword.

“We'll never know because it won't be boredom that stops you,” the President said. “Today's lesson, my proxies is; be yourself.”

The duplicates appearances changed to another, younger man. Their white hair was long enough to reach their neck. They looked identical to the young man Edward met at the shopping centre when this mess started. Ed chucked the spear at the bald man. One of the former copies leapt in front of it, taking it through his chest. The rest rushed him, attempting to strike him with any part of him they could. He countered each attack, sending them into the walls and floor. The president attempted to extract the thrown blade from the chest but was unable to move it. He turned into a shimmer and disappeared.

“Come back here, you coward!” Edward shouted glancing down each side of a T-intersection. He held out his hand, willing the weapon he impaled one of the duplicates out and into his hand.

“One man runs from another? he is a coward. One man runs from God? He is sane and reasonable,” The man's voice echoed through speakers in the ceiling. “How does it feel to penetrate your own blood?” he taunted.

“Nowhere near the disgust I feel knowing you planned to use them as decoys.”

“When the world wants your head, you give them near enough. It's the reality of war.”

“The war YOU STARTED, asshole!” Edward shouted running through more corridors. He came across a room with several tubes, more white-haired young men lie floating inside them.

“INCORRECT! That moron in the oval office started it, spilling all the secrets of our accord. Man was better off believing they were alone. They were faithful, docile,” the Russian President reasoned.

“I don't know if you've noticed in between war-room briefings but, right before you started chucking nukes about the place, we were made to be alone in the universe. Everyone who lived offworld died.”

“Watch me cry the world's smallest tears. Your American allies drop something much larger on MY country. Do you expect me to fall for your Psy-Op? I will not quit this war until I am back in contact with them!” the leader demanded.

“I'm sorry, that was my ship. It was also hit with what killed all those offworlders. Even if they were still around, I would never allow you to get back in contact with the likes of the Daleks, they are friends with no-one.”

“Ah, it becomes so clear now; you fear the imbalance an alliance with them would cause. If there is one thing that Russia has taught the world, heh, it's not to be afraid of change.”

“You know what's going to change here, and very soon? A torpedo is going to crash through this facility.”

“You bluff, also you're about to be overrun.”

The white-haired men came marching into the room with Edward.

“Garnet, track my location and hit it with a tractor beam,” he relayed as he threw his weapon into the ceiling, causing it to spew water, which in turn caused the rooms entrance to close. The room creaked as Edward once again subdued the horde of lookalikes. The room jerked with the sound of tearing metal, sending everyone falling to the ground. Soon afterwards, the flow of water ceased, replaced with a beam of light. The crowd scrambled to their feet, herding towards the beam of light. “Of course! Gemkind are powered by sunlight, and you're Time Lords! The same Time Lord.” Edward clenched his left hand, the light-blue tear assumed place under the gem. He placed the same hand over the head of one of the clones. “Garnet, I've synced with the hybrids.”

“I know, we're in an awkward standoff with one of the Russian spacecraft. They're tractor beaming a few rooms of the facility to them. They won't fire on us and we won't fire on them while we're both doing the heavy lifting.”

“I know what the clones want, light!” Edward began to concentrate, sending a message to the clones around the President. “Check for anything falling out of the containers in the other ship's beams.”

After a few moments Garnet reported, “We've picked up something.”

“Beam it up! But make sure there's a hell of a lot of phasers on it first!”

“Understood. Security, I want a detail of a dozen units in Transporter Room 1.”

“Boys,” Edward spoke to the dozen doppelgangers, “soon you'll have all the light you'll, just promise not to beat up on me, okay?” They ignored him, continuing to scramble for a bath in the light.

“Edward, we've beamed up that falling object, it was the Russian President. He's being uncooperative, I'll get back to you.”

A few minutes later the room landed with a disconcerting thud. A circle of melted metal formed in one of the walls, peeling away to reveal several officers with phasers. Edward stood between them and the clones, talking them into lowering their weapons. After that, he headed to the detention room where the President was contained.

“Are you here for revenge?” The captured leader asked.

“You wish. I just wanted to let you know how badly you lost today. To start, the war you started will be over in a matter of hours and there's not a damn thing that you can do to stop it. Take a guess at how.”

The President smirked briefly before realisation dawned on him. “There is no way you have that sort of control of them.”

Edward nodded, “I don't have control, I do have contact. All this nuclear pollution is as bad for them as it is for us, leaving them with considerable motivation to end it and quickly. Your best bet is to abandon hope of being President again and worry more about whether you'll stay in our custody or be given to the Americans.”

“You monster! Do you know what'll happen? The people who want me dead?” the President said.

“Vividly.”

“They'll hack into my brain!”

Edward nodded.

“Like you hacked your 'children'.”

“You don't have a hope of being treated by the Illuminati as softly as I treated those people you made with MY STOLEN BLOOD!”

“Once it is in the trash heap, it's anyone's to claim.”

“One day you'll realise that the universe out there is lifeless thanks to you.”

Edward stood up and walked away from the former President and met with Garnet outside.

“When are we going after the other duplicates?” Captain Garnet asked.

“They'll impersonate the President long enough to call for a ceasefire, after that's done we'll collect them all, give them a home somewhere isolated.”

“Captain,” a security officer called, “the prisoner is insisting on seeing either of you, says he has something important to tell you.”

The two headed back inside and confronted him again.

“What I tell you I will tell you on the condition that you do not hand me in to the Americans,” the prisoner bargained.

“How about you go fu-”

“Depends on what it is,” Pearl interrupted Ed.

“A year, give or take a month, was nowhere near enough to understand what we sampled from Edward's blood.”

“No shit,” Edward sniped.

“The remains of the gem-people's mine in Tunguska proved invaluable in helping us understand them and it was convenient to use the facility we built there to house the monstrosities” (Edward's eye twitched) “it took us some time to realise that a dank, halogen-lit facility was unsuitable for raising creatures that metabolise sunlight. However, even figuring that part out was not enough.”

“Why? What do you mean?” Garnet probed.

“Because,” he answered, “they would die in weeks anyway. Enough to pacify my people, mostly, but much shorter than Edward would like, I imagine.”

Edward stormed out. He came to a stop down the hallway and shoved his fist into a wall, leaving a large dent in it.

…......

Over the next few months, Russia and the rest of the world experienced a controversial and uneasy peace. Appearances of the Russian president's impostors dwindled gradually until they ceased completely. Edward and the Gem-people looked after them up until their deaths, the first would bring a tear to his eye. By the time the last had passed, even Pearl had become numb to the sense of loss.

**Chapter 24: The Gem Connection**

Long, long ago. Edward and Veritas emerged within a large subterranean metropolis, bustling with activity. Edward hoist her into one arm and thrust Stormbreaker towards a large muddy building on the other side. They made their way into the building weaving through the dense crowd that had gathered around an orange bald-haired gem-woman.

“Only when we are connected can we achieve true peace,” she spieled.

“Then let's connect,” Edward offered as he barged on stage.

“You must be willing to connect with your fellow being, whether they be friend or stranger,” she said, confronting him.

Edward extended his left hand. A wave of white light burst forth and enveloped her. She clutched her head and staggered away from him. This triggered a furore in the crowd until Edward raised his borrowed weapon, letting sparks fly from it. The crowd peeled away from him in panic

“I-I a-am, cleansed!” the orange girl said.

“Alright, I'm gonna need your help. You like bringing things together, this other threat wants to tear things apart, we're on your side if you're on ours. Your purple sister is going to start wrecking the place, so I suggest you suspend your little social upheaval for now.”

“Oh no, please forgive me! Wounding another's body hurts one's soul likewise,” the Soul GemStone turned to the crowd, “Please don't indulge in violence.” The crowd began to yell and jeer. Veritas hopped on stage as Edward opened up a portal, the two ushered the orange woman through.

The three emerged in an abandoned and neglected metropolis.

“I could've soothed their spirits!” the Soul GemStone insisted.

“Not the big issue right now, perhaps after we subdue the Power GemStone.”

“How do you know she's coming?”

“I've done this before, but now I have the cure to your malady.”

“I was not aware I had been infected until I received your antidote. I will offer you any assistance I can.”

An hour later a meteor came flying towards the three. The Soul gem grew in size, delivering a punch to the flying rock and shattering it into dust. A purple bolt flew into her head and knocked her off her feet, sending her crashing into several city blocks. The bolt disappeared between buildings, triggering a quake that felled even more structures. Veritas deployed her carbon armour and joined Edward in tracking down the cause of the destruction.

The two came across a crater half-filled with rubble. Edward gestured to Vert to stop. The pile of broken buildings began to shift and glow until a purple figure shot up from it. It held a large piece of building in its hand which it pelted in their direction. Edward lightly tapped on Vert's back with his borrowed weapon, shoving her towards the hole, before throwing it at the chunk and smashing it. The glow dimmed, revealing the shape of the woman holding the Purple GemStone. Edward pelted Stormbreaker at her, however she was able to knock it aside with a flick of her wrist. Veritas leapt at her only to be forced off the hill of rubble as she tried to grab her.

“Gonna need an orange and grape squeeze here,” Edward said. The Soul gem landed directly behind the Power gem and embraced her tightly while lifting her off her feet. The restrained jewel girl flailed her legs uselessly as Edward carefully walked up to her side. Light shone forth from his left hand, blanketing the two. Power's flailing eased up until she fully relaxed. “Alright 'Purple People Beater' (not gonna use that nickname again), you wanna help us inoculate your sisters?”

“Will this bitch let me go if I say 'yes'?” she grumbled.

“Her choice,” Ed said offhandedly. He summoned Stormbreaker and climbed over to a flat piece of land. “Alright everyone, if you want an express trip on the Bifrost Express, stand near me.” The Soul gem let go of her and leapt, floating down next to him. Veritas stood over next to him with a hop, skip and a jump. The Power gem begrudgingly wandered over towards him, avoiding his eyes. A rainbow light vanished the quartet and flew off into space.

The beam landed in a green, mountainous landscape between two giant metal walls.

“This is Nidavellir, I need to exchange weapons. You're invited to join me.” Edward set off towards a forest, Vert followed immediately after him. The two gems, after a moment's hesitation, joined him. They trudge through verdant woods and over several hills until, eventually, they came across metal and stone structures, occupied by hairy giant men. Upon seeing him and his company, one dropped a hammer from his grip and stared.

“A-a woman of purple and orange! Veritas and the man with the king's weapon!” He gasped and ran inside of the largest building while others began to leer at him in astonishment. Dozens of other giants crowded them. He took great pains to stand between them and the two gem girls.

“Alright, alright. I get that this looks, well, _odd_ but I assure you that we're all alright here. I just wanna drop off Stormbreaker here and get on with my little trip,” he explained to the crowd.

“What befell Odinson? Why do you have his weapon?” one dwarf asked.

“Do you mean to kill us, as the prophecy fortold?” another accused.

“The girls are no threat, I repeat, no threat! Thor is compromised and left his hammer behind.”

“It's him!” One voice boomed. An ornately-garbed dwarf ran towards him, hoisting him off his feet.

“Urk. Okay, I don't know you so could we stick with a handshake?” Ed groaned as he suffered through the constriction.

“But I do know you, ever since I was a boy I dreamt of our first meeting!” The cuddle-happy giant said, “waking up in the suit of armour, me nearly killing you before we made that portal.”

“That was you? I thought that was an automaton!” Edward insisted.

“I was IN the Destroyer Armour.”

“Well, nice to meet you, whoever you are. You look important.”

“I AM important, I'm the king! Etiri.”

A little later, Edward, Etiri, Veritas and the two personified Infinity GemStones stood in front of a large cube which looked familiar to Ed.

“How could this be here when I never sent you back in time?” Edward asked, amazed and confused.

“Well, you saw me go back in time, didn't you?” The king asked.

“I... guess?” Edward conceded as he poked at the tablet embedded onto the side of the cube. It opened to reveal several weapons inside one wall, text on another and int the centre, to Edward's amazement, another Veritas. Edward walked over to the weapons and began to place them all around his armour.

“Weird, what's the fist there for?” The Power gem asked. The Veritas in the box awoke and charged at the gems, coming to a halt as she noticed another with her appearance in the room.

“Oh, thank god,” Edward gasped as the four girls stood off.

“Someone explain this,” the reawakened Veritas demanded.

“It seems that contents of the box are so well preserved that even changes in the timeline don't effect its existence. As for the gem girls, I cured them, to put it simply. The fist-”

“Is the damned Infinity Gauntlet, isn't it?” the purple gem fumed. She barged her way through the two Veritas' and Edward to take the gauntlet.

“Sure, take it. Put it on, see if it suits you,” Edward said sardonically.

“That gauntlet is not for you!” Etiri growled.

“Please, she can have it. That's if she decides to help us,” Edward suggested.

“Why would I want to help you? Especially after you planned to just use us as toys.” The purple gem fumed.

“Please, calm down sister.” the orange gem pleaded.

“If you have such a problem with being a toy, then I have just the assholes for you to punch,” Edward offered.

“You are the asshole I should punch!” the gauntlet-wearing gem threatened.

“I don't have any of your sisters enslaved, I know three people who do!”

“Then what's that on your left hand?”

Edward fell silent. Both Veritas pointed their swords at her. One of them transformed into a blue-haired man who wore a yellow and white robe, Veritas' other form, Lumen.

The Power GemStone pried her jewel from her back, a blast of purple energy knocked all but the Orange girl backwards. She placed it in the slot at the base of it's index finger. Etiri fell down the shaft in the tower when the Soul gem caught him. The purple girl sent a blast of energy towards Veritas Umbra and Lumen, knocking them over the edge as well. Etiri was, fortunately, able to grab the two before they fell. She then shoved Edward into the cube and shot him as well, knocking him and the box through the wall and outside. She waltzed over to her sister who struggled on the edge.

“Are you with me, sister?” the purple one asked.

“I'm with them, it doesn't have to be one or the other,” the orange one replied.

“We've two options; be enslaved to make them gods or make ourselves their gods. I will not let them subjugate you!”

The Power GemStone reached down and plucked the Soul stone from her chest. Immediately the orange colour began to fade from her body as her grip on the king failed. The three fell. She placed the orange gem on the slot under her middle finger. She clenched the gauntlet, causing the two gems to glow. An orange light shone forth from her briefly, quickly fading.

Edward emerged from a portal behind her, armed with Iustitia in cannon form, “Couldn't do it, could you? It's kinda like feeling the pulse in someone's neck as you choke them. You realise that we're all the same underneath. Some of us can close our eyes to that, but yours? Yours is wedged open thanks to your sister.”

She began to claw and teeth at the orange gem frantically for a time before squatting and letting out a cry, “Why can't I get it off!?”

“As far as I know, only the Space GemStone can budge them.”

Edward offered his hand to her, helping her onto her feet again. The two walked down the tower to the ground floor. Umbra and Lumen stood next to the cube on one side while Etiri stood on the other.

“Splendid effort averting the prophecy. Whatever I can do to make this even, please, just ask.”

“If Schindler's List taught me anything it's that exercising power without restraint isn't power,” Edward cogitated, “as for a favour, I'd like the head of a mace the size of your head, attached to a Knuckle Duster-like handle you, and I do mean **you** can stick your fist through and for them to be attached by a steel rope within the mace head.”

“Alright, I get your subtle insinuations. Now will you tell me how the hell you three survived?” The Power gem said.

“Edward caught us in the cube he manipulated. Hmm as for your request Ed, all that I can do, but the rope will surely and quickly break,” Etiri informed him.

“Will a chain do?” Ed suggested.

“Manipulated with what?” the purple girl interrupted.

“With the Space gem's power! Next time you speak up I'll consider that you volunteering,” Edward said.

“Certainly, we can make a chain out of the same metal as the rest and quite easily at that,” Etiri said.

“Now, at this point we Bifrost to Earth but get intercepted by the Reality gem.”

“Ahaha, I bet she's fun.”

“Well then, you'll be coming with me.”

“Great!” she said enthusiastically.

Edward sighed, “Who else want is joining the four of us?”

“Well, I can't join you because I have a flail to forge and a sword to repair.”

“I'm afraid Umbra dropped her weapon, so she won't be joining us until it's repaired,” Lumen reported. Edward sighed again and opened a portal, he the Power gem and Lumen stood through.

The three emerged at a park, the landscape curved around and above them. Lumen and the purple gem marvelled at the bizarre surrounds.

“Yeah, this place stretches seemingly endlessly in all directions,” Edward pointed out.

“She could be any grain of sand on this beach,” Lumen said.

Edward pointed to a nearby shelter, “Lumen and I will hide there, you use the Soul stone to lure her out. Try to convince her to take the vaccine.”

They walked off to take cover. Several moments later a sudden blast buried them in dust and debris...

**Chapter 25: In The Jaws Of The World Eater**

“Edward's tin-hat accusation split this country at the worst possible time. Despite handing us the Russian President, the US government and I agree that you will NOT have the stargate.” The general resolved.

“I see,” Pearl replied before vanishing from the office. Back on the Titor she met with Edward and Amethyst, giving them bad news.

“Tell me you have a 'plan B', we're not getting that portal except by stealing it.” Amethyst commented.

“It's a long-shot but I do have some 'friends' sequestered in an obscure corner of this galaxy. A few years before our alien neighbours were vanished, Earth was invaded by a hive-mind sort of collective called the Aurum. I hacked their brain and convinced about 10% to hide in an uninhabited world best accessed by stargate. Hopefully the SGC is still honouring our agreement to blacklist that planet.”

“They'll have checked every planet one-by-one for life over the past few years and they'd be very thorough.”

“There's a few they won't go to, some are inhospitable, a couple are buried and one goes to a black hole.”

“Are the Aurum still alive?” Amethyst asked.

“It's entirely possible that the Aurum don't have souls, without them they would've been overlooked by the gauntlet.”

“That's a big gamble with some troubling implications. If your Aurum are immune then what else are out there in the universe, soulless but still ticking.”

They agreed to have Edward warp them to the Aurum's planet. He climbed atop the exterior of the Titor, shifting the dark-blue tear to under the gem on his left hand. The stars stretched endlessly behind the ship. It arrived at a green and white world. Edward phased into the ship's bridge, he retracted his helmet and breathed heavily.

“That... that started to hurt after a while. I was out in the infinite cosmos and still felt suffocated,” Edward gasped, “I've... never something this size so far.”

“Sir, it looks like we've been sent across the galaxy some 50,000 light years,” an officer reported.

“A.. a hop skip and... a jump for the Aurum,” Edward said, breathing heavily before he passed out.

He awoke on a table, immediately he became aware of his throbbing head. A familiar face greeted him, the Medical Hologram.

“Ah, I expected you to awaken but not so soon. I've been analysing your photovorous cells and they've been slow to feed, even after we moved you to the planet's surface. How are you feeling?” the hologram inquired.

“Hungover, without the prior drunken stupor,” Edward replied, asking, “where is everyone?”

“Are you sure you want the answer to that?” it asked.

“Uh, yeah.”

“They are deceased,” he said, matter-of-factually.

“You-, you're not kidding, are you? Oh god, what happened?”

“We were attacked sometime after we arrived. This ship's interim captain warped us back to Earth, where we have been travelling ever since.”

“Damn, how long ago was this? If it's the Aurum I can get them to stand down.”

“Forty-three years, eight months and twelve days ago.”

Edward sat silently in the room. The throbbing in his head worsened. He tipped forward and fell onto the ground. The doctor injected something into his neck.

“A mild neural inhibitor. I anticipated this adverse reaction to the news.”

Many hours later, Edward's headache had eased. The Doctor showed him to several rooms that had been modified to house the remaining crew in stasis pods. Afterwards, the two stood in amongst creatures made of simple polygonal shapes, circles, triangular pyramids, cubes. They were white, highlighted with gold. The doctor informed him that while the ship fled the Aurum's world, it had split into four, with the three other pieces having been lost in the meanwhile.

“It was not these Aurum, those units were inactive. They were beamed aboard for intensive analysis. Several months of fruitless research ended suddenly when an army emerged through the stargate.”

Edward took a phaser he had acquired and used a low setting on it to cut an Aurum in half.

“I don't mean to sound like a dick, but could you leave me alone for the time being?”

“Affirmative. However, I request that you refrain from language unfitting of a starfleet officer.”

“Wha? You're a doctor.”

“I'm the ranking officer aboard this vessel. I'm a doctor AND the captain.”

Over the next few months Edward toiled away, he shifted the light-blue tear to active position on his Imperium Module. He modified the Titor and the captured automatons for his own purposes. He made a covering for his right arm, four became four-sided drones that orbited around him. He also used them to enhance the warp output on the ship, further accelerating it through hyperspace.

The holographic doctor interrupted him to deliver some bad news, “the other sections of the Titor have decided to catch up with us, when I contacted them they responded with this:”

“[WE ARE THE BORG. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.]”

“The hell? How are the Borg still around? Do you have a plan of attack, 'captain'?”

“I do not.”

“Is there a way to disable their warp drive?”

“I'm not at liberty to say.”

“We're facing either destruction or assimilation, do you want that?” Edward asked, rasing his voice.

“I am unsure of what course of action to take.”

“Then trust me and let me fight them.”

“I have to advise against violence.”

“Oh for crying out loud! Computer, transfer every bit of literature you have on morality and ethics to the hologram doctor's banks!”

“I do not authorise this!”

“What are you afraid of, doc? It's just ethics.”

“Fine, I consent.”

“Now what do you think?”

Edward found himself transported to a bare room, the walls had lights on them while the floor had yellow lines. “I hate being dematerialised.”

“We do not have the resources to attack all three warp cores practically. However we can strand them in normal space, but we risk stranding ourselves as well.”

“I'm okay with that.”

“I see. During stardate 51781.2, the USS Voyager, detected something called the 'Omega Molecule,” a blurred three-dimensional image of atoms joined into the one molecule made up of tesselating pentagons and hexagons, appeared, “just a few of which has a theoretical output equal to 10% of a Dyson Sphere-”

“Shit, that's a lot,” Edward interrupted, “Sorry, what's the catch?”

“The catch is; they're incredibly unstable and mistreatment will cause them to detonate in such a way that made warp impossible. We believed they destroyed subspace but it seems more like they 'jam' it. What you see is the only time the federation managed to stabilise it, this did not last more than 4 seconds.”

“I see. How long can we keep up this little cat-and-mouse game?”

“Less than thirty hours, they'll be in a position to rejoin with this ship at that point. Their warp output is slightly greater than ours.”

“I think I can do this.” Edward went on to create a containment device out of spare parts of the ship and parts of the retrieved Aurum. He cannibalised a replicator from one of the unused droms, placing it inside the device. He pried batteries out of smaller craft sitting in the docks. Finally, he placed it on a transporter pad, hooking it up to the ship's computer. “Alright, doc, I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Wanna drop out of warp?”

“Copy that, dropping out. If I were organic, I'd probably be praying to one or more deities right now,” the doctor replied.

“Alright computer, power up my new toy,” Edward ordered. He peered through the small screen to see the particles arrange like they did on the hologram. He hurried over to the transporters control panel, hastily poking at buttons and shifting levers. The container vanished in dancing lights. “Doc, toss a torpedo at it and warp out immediately.”

“Understood.” The room shook briefly. “We're in warp now.” The room shook much more violently. “We're out of warp now.”

“Shit,” Edward whispered, then asked, “how far did we get?”

“Forty-one Astronomical Units, that's three hundred and twenty-eight light minutes.”

“How long will it take for the other sections of the Titor to catch up with us?”

“Weeks if we sit still, relatively speaking. Over a year if we move at maximum speed with our sub-light engines.”

“Can I request that you push the engines to 75% capacity? I need to get ready to engage them.”

….....

Eleven months passed. In that time they had no success awakening anyone from stasis. Edward turned his focus on countering the impending Borg offensive. The other sections of the Titor had caught up with the section the hologram and Edward occupied. The hologram accepted Ed's idea to merge its program with the ship's computer.

“[RESISTANCE IS FUTILE],” is the only thing the Borg broadcast as their vessels rejoined with the target of their pursuit.

Edward sat in the holodeck, the doctor's vision was displayed around him. The Borg emerged from the door at the end of the corridor. They were not the mix of flesh and robotics as they expected, instead they were encased in a familiar, smooth metal armour.

“[You will guide us to the orgainics, including Edward Orson]” A Borg drone demanded.

“Why the specific interest in Edward?” the man-made medic asked.

“[We will answer no questions],” The drones barged through the hologram. They walked into an internal transporter, vanishing into light. More drones walked through the hallway, surrounding the hologram. “[We have lost contact with the drones, you will rematerialise them immediately].”

“As I suspected.” Edward smirked, examining a holographic duplicate of the drone. “Your armour is, aside form the bland colour scheme, a dead ringer for Tony Stark's nanomachine suit. What do you see, doc?”

“The biology is nothing special except for the parasite embedded in its head.”

“Oh snap! I can say 'snap', can't I Captain?” Edward asked, playfully.

“You've certainly worn out anything worse.”

The layers of the hologram peeled away, revealing a serpentine organism that had wrapped itself around the head and neck.

“Well, uh. I didn't see that coming,” Edward admitted, “Doc! Prep 'em for surgery.”

The hologram vanished. The Borg stormed the ship en-masse, coming through every room, hallway and maintenance shaft. A squad stormed the holodeck, finding themselves beside an overcast and rocky beach. Edward, clad in his white and grey armour, emerged from behind several boulders.

“Isn't the view just breathtaking? It makes Crysis look like Pong; every atom, every quirk of light and every law of physics painstakingly recreated. I could not go back to my twin 1060s gra-”

The drones bombarded him with missiles, covering him in the roaring fire of dozens of explosions. No trace of him remained in the charred grass.

“[An obvious decoy. Split up, spread out, subdue and assimilate],” a drone ordered.

The grassy plains receded into the earth and from it emerged dozens of angular concrete and glass skyscrapers. From the sea emerged a gigantic snake fighting with dozens of sea ships and being bombarded by rockets from fighters.

“Yeah, I figured you wouldn't be fooled by something as pedestrian as a holographic decoy. So, how's this as a reminder of what happened in the millenia you skipped, snakey.” Edward's disembodied voice echoed.

The Borg forces poured in and started to bomb the city and ships, they also engaged with the bombers flying around the giant serpent. They were unable to save the creature, an explosion tore one of its eyes apart sending it sinking back into the water. Their attacks grew more furious, sinking the ships, downing the aircraft and levelling the city. Moments later, the ships and aircraft surfaced and the city rose again. The snake also re-emerged, its eye and parts of its flesh covered in metal.

“My apologies if the symbolism is a bit on-the-nose,” Edward said facetiously.

“[You will be assimilated first, or you will be assimilated last],” a drone prattled.

“And then what?” Edward asked.

“[We will seek out new life and assimilate it].”

“How's that going for you? I bet the well's been dry and for quite some time.”

“[Irr-, irr-...-elevant].”

“What will you do when you run out of civilisations to att-, I mean, assimilate? I ask because there _aren't_ any civilisations out there, aside from Earthen colonies. You'll blow through them before the century's out, I know it.”

“[We have assim...,-ilated seventy-six human colonies, si... since our acquisition of Earth. Ssss... somethhhh-iiiiing... is inhibitiiiiiing o-oooouuurrrr orgaaaaniiic, prooocesssssors].

“Yeah, no shit. We've been pumping every sedative agent we could through the ship since you got aboard.”

One by one, the Borg drones began to droop and kneel. The holodeck deactivated, leaving several drones lying on the ground.

“Alright, Doc. Inject my virus into them,” Edward prompted. The exoskeletons changed shape, morphing into chrysalises and coffins.

“I have integrated myself with the other sections of the Titor, I'll begin propelling the ship at relativistic speed.”

The ship lurched as it accelerated. Over the next few days Edward hurredly shifted the Borg's cocoons into rooms which were promptly sealed. The ship cleared the radiation left behind by the omega particles, sending itself into warp as it did. The doctor and Edward worked in shifts to examine the sedated cyborgs.

“It's a bit weird referring to you as the doctor, not helped by how similar you two are,” Edward remarked. Between the two lay the surgically opened body of a drone, they were working to extract the serpentine parasite from it.

“We doctors are quite alike. Quirks and flaws aside, we inherently value life.” the hologram stated.

“Tell me; is there a point where you decide that death is an acceptable consequence?” Edward asked.

“Virtually never. There will be times where one is out of resources but scientific progress moves that further and further away.”

“What if you introduce something to the body,” Edward pointed to the parasite, “something that would strengthen it in theory but also be capable of controlling and killing it at will?”

“I think I would keep host and parasite separate, introduce one only with the informed consent of the host.”

“Interesting,” Edward nodded, “let's change the scenario a bit. How about instead of a host and parasite, how about a population of twenty million introduced, secretly, to a population of, say, six or seven billion?”

“I would consider that extraordinarily irresponsible. I know you refer to the influx of Zygons that occurred in the christian year of 2013. If blame is to be applied then it would first go to the individual criminals, particularly for violating a treaty. The Zygon and UNIT authorities would have to take secondary accountability; the Earth was quite troubled and chaotic, that would only worsen and devolve in the following years. I believe the Time-Lord known as the 'Doctor' is quite prone to hubris and misunderstanding human nature.”

“Indeed,” Edward said, having extracted the Goa'uld parasite.

“But, I have a hypothesis on his behaviour; he wishes to mould humans into something like how he wishes his own people would act.”

“Tell me, doctor. The illuminati, Majestic-12, Templars. Are there any groups that operate from the dark to control society? Something that's existed since or before the Federation?”

“I know of no such organisation, the groups you've listed are a fiction or only exist in history.”

Edward retracted the armour on his lower torso, he turned his right forearm into a blade and cut an X-shaped incision in his own belly. He then placed the parasite within him, it leapt inside. Edward's eyes glowed an off-white yellow.

“I-I can feel it writing within me!” Edward said, his voice distorted unnaturally deeply “It's trying to hijack my mind but I'm too strong! We're connected. I-It's Jormungandr. Of course!”

“Was Jormungandr not inhabiting a host who was not native to Earth?” the doctor asked.

“I-I... he... was preserved in the borg's ship. They took him and, oh god! They took Peridot as well! They brainwashed her into manufacturing Stark's nanomachines. After the nuclear attacks they sent group after group to every world in the Stargate Command's databanks, searching for life and new homes.”

“The Borg?”

“The Earthens too! They assimilated the colonies, mined them for materials and then launched an attack on Earth while we were at the Aurum's refuge. Th-the bastards!”

Edward and the doctor elected to keep the drones sedated as they made the decades long trip to Earth. Eventually the two arrived in Jupiter's orbit. Edward convinced the holographic captain to drop out of warp and travel at relativistic speed.

“Can you engage temporal cloaking soon?”

“Care to inform me of your plan?” the doctor asked.

“If we keep moving AND engage our best cloak, we'll be the hardest to detect. They'll have almost certainly repaired the other version of the Titor,” Edward pitched, “what are the odds that they'd be able to use it for time travel?”

“Ensign Berry was one of very few people qualified to operate the time portal generator, when he died he took his understanding of the mechanics with him.”

“Hmm, mechanics the Borg might still know from having controlled the Doctor, the time-lord, I mean.”

“I gathered from context,” the hologram quipped.

“That leaves one fewer avenue of time travel,” Edward sighed in relief.

“What others are there?”

“UNIT has an archive of technology mostly related to the Doctor, there's a wrist device that opens time portals but it's broken, there's the rift in Cardiff, there's a crude lab in Japan with a machine that lets one send phone calls back in time, and then there's the Stargate itself; combined with manipulating the sun's solar activity it can send matter back in time.”

Their ship emerged near Earth and immediately engaged its temporal cloak. They began scans on the earth and nearby. Edward pulled up a picture of southeast England, a water-filled crater sat where he he expected London to be.

“That's the archive gone. Now to check Cheyenne,” Edward commented, slightly grim. An information box appeared on his monitor, “yeah, massive energy reading under Cheyenne. They've activated the stargate. I'm programming a route into the navi-computer. It'll take you about an hour to fly around Earth's orbit.”

“And if I'm compromised?” the hologram asked.

“I guess I'll have to take the stargate.”

“Edward opened a portal, stepping through it to find himself standing outside a tunnel heading into a large mountain. The sign read 'Cheyenne Mountain Complex”. Dozens of armoured drones descended upon him. From behind him he could hear the rushing of something far into the air. He turned around to find himself face-to-face with a Borg-modified Titor.

**Chapter 26: Pull The Tail, Push The Head**

Several decades ago.

Edward and Lumen were engulfed in a cloud of dust. The former covered the cloud in dark blue energy and condensed it into a single large clump of earth. A crater, quickly filling with dirty water, sat where the purple gem-woman stood. Edward caught sight of her flying off into the distance and onto the landscape above them, yelling, “Come out, wherever you are, Sister!”

Edward opened a portal, ushering Lumen through it, on the other side the landscape was incredibly similair to where they came from.

“Goddammit! The Reality GemStone is dangerous. Even with two of its siblings she'll have a difficult time luring it out, especially if she keeps wrecking the place like that. You can see the future, unlike Umbra, where do we find the Reality gem?” Edward asked his companion.

“Unfortunately, we find her in the mouth of Alucard's monster,” Lumen lamented.

“Dammit! New plan of attack, or new target at least; we go after that idiot with the gauntlet.”

Edward teleported back to the purple woman, unsheathing his katana and extending it's pure-white blade. He took several swipes at her before she caught it in her gaunlet-covered hand. Purple streaks of light began to cover the hilt like cracks. He gripped the gauntlet with his left hand, entwining the energies of the gems on each.

“Do you think you're invincible? Unstoppable? Allow me to disabuse you of that notion,” Edward promised.

In the distance, an insectoid mass of chitinous spikes burst through the ground, it was Alucard and his monstrous steed. The Power gem launched herself in its direction, thrusting her metal fist out in front of her. Her impact with the giant insect caused the ground to tremble, a flash of purple light burst forth from the impact. She fell to the ground, rolling sideways to a halt.

“The glow of those jewels on your fist, they are as gorgeous as the one on mine,” Alucard marvelled as he rubbed the dark-blue gem embedded in an amulet around his neck. This brought a furious scowl to the purple girl's face. She fired an orange and a purple beam of energy at the vampire. The beams passed through him, leaving small holes that shrunk and vanished. He dissolved into mist, blanketing and blinding her. She thought she caught a glimpse of the amulet flying through the miasma.

“Big mistake, Al!” Edward called, “now you have to choose between harassing her or retrieving the Space gem.”

The mist condensed behind the purple woman but before she could turn she felt her neck being pierced. She felt herself being lifted and turned to face Edward, who he could see holding the amulet and precious stone. She turned and could barely see Alucard's head behind hers. He pried his teeth out and taunted Edward.

“I lost one stone but have two others now, I've gotten ahead in the game.”

“This isn't a game, let go of her now!”

“Scolding me for playing with my food?”

“No, I just know how to use the Space stone,” A dark-blue energy enveloped the gauntlet, it tore from the purple girl's hand. Edward caught it and placed it on his right hand, attaching the stone in the slot under the ring finger, “I'm sorry for this, 'luv'.” He clenched the gauntlet, dissolving the purple girl into brown dust. “Should've just swallowed, now you're behind.” Edward entered into a cloudy portal, emerging next to Lumen. Edward administered the white vaccine to the Space stone.

“I regret to inform you that, white you've cured the Reality stone, Time is still diseased,” Lumen said.

Edward sighed, “It's the little victories, I guess. I hope that damned gem stops being so shy now.” He then showed Lumen the gem on his left hand, it was drawing the mind stone's power. “I'm in contact with her, she's calming down.”

A building formed from red mist around them, Edward immediately recognised his new surroundings, his home. More mist floated up from the ground, taking the shape of a human. Embedded in her left-hand eye was the Reality gem.

“I'm so sorry,” she said meekly.

After a few moment silence, Edward asked, “... for?”

“I wished you were here, and you came.”

“Yeah, the first time I landed here it was because you intercepted our Bifrost. It's, uh, a time-loop thing,” Edward said.

“I... see... That monster wishes to devour me, doesn't he?” the Red girl despaired.

“He was always going to come here, but I sped this process up. I needed the Spa-, your sister, who was in his clutches.”

A violent rumbling shattered the windows and cracked the walls.

“He's coming,” Lumen warned.

The three ran outside. Off in the distance, the tunnel of land that once stretched off into infinity now lay veiled in darkness. Alucard's steed crawled out of the shadows, creeping towards them.

“What is that!?” the Red gem asked.

“An eater of planets. It smashes material down into atoms and eats it. In its stomach the matter gets broken down so far that it becomes ether; the fundamental particles of reality. It can consume a vast variety of ether types, even time. It has and can eat multiple universes, it'll eat this universe eventually.”

The creature came to a halt. Alucard set his feet onto the earth and calmly walked up to them. A few blades emerged from behind the Reality gem, flying toward and through the vampire. He grinned and snickered under his breath. Lumen brandished a sharpened sasumata and charged at him, Alucard responded casually, having pulled out a large pistol and fired a shot off at him. In an instant, Lumen vanished, a strike knocked Al's arm to his side and he found himself captured in the head of Lumen's spear.

“Bind his legs, gem woman!” He commanded.

The Reality stone sunk the earth below Alucard, engulfing his feet. Edward jogged up to the two. Alucard's body began to grow as he struggled against his containment, his skin turned blue and his clothes turned into mist. He pushed back against Lumen, freeing himself. The transforming vampire slashed a clawed hand at Lumen, sending him doubling over in pain. Edward deployed his larger armour. Alucard uprooted his legs and shoved his heel at Lumen, sending him flying backwards. Edward tackled the giant monster to the ground. He now resembled a gargoyle.

“Your giant form is merely a shell, Edward. **This** is who I really am!” Alucard roared before taking a bit of the head of his armour. Edward shoved the gauntlet, the orange and purple gems glowign brightly, into his chest. “It's no use, my soul is a twisted, knotted and warped mess. You'll never fix it even with the Soul gem.”

Beams of plasma shot from the creature, enveloping the surrounds in bright light. Then, everything fell into darkness briefly before they found themselves at the dead end of a broad and long tunnel.

“We're safe now,” the red gem assured everyone, tying Alucard in a crimson rope, “that monster won't get through the wall any time soon.”

“You hope. How long do we have, Lumen?” Edward asked as he relinquished his grip on the vampire, who struggled furiously against the new restraints.

“Several minutes,” the blue-haired sage replied.

“How are you so sure?” the Reality stone asked.

“I am the embodiment of the Sheikah Eye of Truth, it gives me many forms of clairvoyance.”

“How about we just get the hell out of here?” Edward suggested, flippantly.

“We can't just run away from him forever. Isn't that what you wanted me to learn?” the red gem asked.

“The Mind and Time GemStones are on Earth, we can make our stand there, I've already sent a psychic message to Etiri. I've just received a disturbing psychic message. The Borg there are receiving backup.”

Soon thereafter, the three emerged in front of a tunnel leading into a mountain. Atop the mountain a sign read 'Cheyenne Mountain Complex'. Dozens of armed soldiers pointed their weapons at them.

“Calm your tits. I'm on your side,” Edward groaned, still in his larger armour, “Wanna tell me the situation before I march in?”

“I ain't telling you shit! Now get the hell out of here before I order a missile strike!” An older officer barked at him.

“You better goddamn well update him on the situation or I'll haul your ass over the coals,” another man marched out from behind Edward, red-faced and scowling. Edward recognised him as the officer straightened up and saluted him.

“M-Mister President!” the general uttered, “I, uh, don't know where to begin!”

“What came out of the gate and why aren't we being swarmed right now?” Edward asked hastily.

“The gate opened, they got a valid ID code so they opened the gate's shield thingy. Then the bottom level got swarmed with flying metal men. They didn't kill anyone but they've taken a few dozen men hostage. They're holding fast to the gate and surrounding rooms.”

“They're cyborgs powered by clones of a Goa'uld symbiote, probably the only one who doesn't have a grudge with your comrades at the SGC.”

…......

On the other side of the gate, the Titor fired torpedoes of yellow light at Edward as he backed into the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. He had deployed his dwarf-forged shield which ably took each of the blasts. Four mettalic objects shaped like triangular pyramids floated from his back, three sides of each opened up like a flower's petals, revealing a crystalline structure glowing purple underneath. Three beams of energy shot out of each, being curved by the 'petals' into the one beam, which impacted against the Titor's shield.

The holographic doctor aboard the other Titor waited as the ship made it's rapid orbit around the sun. It examined the code that Edward wrote into the navicomputer, noticing that parts of it had been heavily encrypted. It processed the encrypted program through every cipher on the database, noting that the ship had already passed the halfway point of its journey, as he expected from the laws of time on ultra-fast moving objects. The doctor found himself standing in his office, he noticed a small device on his desk, his mobile holographic emitter. He transferred himself to it finding himself standing face-to-face with a hologram of Edward Orson.

“I'm sorry doctor. I don't know if it was a bug in your moral code or just me being under-ranked, but, well, you kinda lied to me. I know the Templars, Illuminati, etc are real and I have just the proof,” the holograpic image of Edward said. A floating parchment appeared next to him. The doctor read it, his eyebrows furrowed. “This is Starfleet's charter, Section 31, sanctioning 'extraordinary measures' in times of 'extreme threat'. This set off alarm bells, so I dug into information on 'Section 31' and found out that there's heavily encrypted files on the activities of an organisation with its namesake and that they act with impunity. A perfect bludgeon for oligarchical despots and you knew about it. I can't trust you, but you can help me one last time.”

The Doctor spirinted to the bridge, arriving there in time to see the ship heading for the moon.

Edward now surrounded by Borg and their vessels looked up to see the moon shatter. He ran inside the tunnel, an enormous metal door blocked his path. He dug his fingers in the gap between the doors and parted them slightly, squeezing himself through the gap. He took a few steps before being shoved back towards the door. A large grey Hulkbuster armour blocked his path. Edward deployed his larger armour and charged at it, delivering several blows with is fists before being blasted by a beam from its hand. It attempted another blast but Edward placed his shield over his smaller arms, deflecting the beam back to it's sender. Edward then hit it with an intense sonic shock, causing it to convulse. He then charged at it, throwing his armour's larger fist into its chest and smashing it.

Both Edwards retracted their larger armour. They raced through the tunnel and tore open a door to a lift. He fired a short purple beam from his forehead at the cable on the other side and leapt down the shaft, crushing the elevator under their feet as he landed.

The earlier Edward was accosted by several Borg. He unfurled his sword-belt and cut through them as he barged into an office. Through glass to his left he could see a conference room for viewing an even larger room. He crashed through the windowed wall and spotted a staircase beside him. Leaping down it, he found himself in a room with several consoles and full of Borg. He let off a sonic blast, shorting out the computers as he cut down the drones in the room. Through the glass in the room he could see a large metal ring engraved with dozens of glyphs and several chevron-like, the stargate; a bright watery substance occupied its center indicating its activity. He fired a sonic beam at the stargate, a metal 'iris' covered the watery entrance.

The later Edward similarly cut his way through the facility's depths. Upon reaching the stargate, he fired sound at it, disengaging the portal. He covered the gate in a dark-blue energy, causing the glyphs to begin rotating. As more drones poured into the gate room, one red-orange chevron lit up. The Borg mass pinned Edward to a wall as more chevrons on the stargate lit up. A splash of liquid-like energy flew out of the metal ring. He planted his feet firmly on the ground as the watery portal stretched infinitely into a tunnel away from the gate. The room around began to fly apart and through the gate, as did the horde. Even the ground quickly cracked up as it was pulled through.

Then the carnage around him froze.

“What a waste of precious life,” a purring, contralto voice lamented.

A woman wearing the six Infinity GemStones casually waltzed through the gate, pushing the debris beside her as she walked.

“Why do I think we view this tragedy very differently, Nemesis?” Edward asked, finding himself standing on, and surrounded by, white earth. He quickly gathered that he stood on the fragments of Earth's moon, which he could see had rendered the blue planet barren and blackened. He felt a hand touch his shoulder. He turned to face Nemesis, who wrapped both her hands on his shoulders.

“Dialing the stargate to a black hole is a 'tragedy' to you? Tearing the moon apart and letting the pieces rend the world asunder is a 'tragedy'? How do you view it?” Nemesis asked.

“The tragedy of not leaving well enough alone, but I'm guessing you disagree.” Edward answered

“I was never fond of my ethers flooding the universe, but if they must then I have a duty to regulate them, and strictly.”

“No. No!” Edward despaired, “you can't do that! You can't just decide to become dictator of the universe!”

“What about you? You have a portion of my power on your left hand and on your right is the means to control all of it. After all these decades you still have the gauntlet on your right hand, surrender it!” she ordered.

“Fine, but I have something I need to do first, test a hypothesis.” From his left hand came a shimmering light, enveloping the GemStones on her crown. “There, I think I cured you of a virus. A virus you've had all your existence, that was caused by a woman who wouldn't exist for billions of years after your birth and not until you initially divided yourself.”

Nemesis fell to her knees, clutching her head. “M-my thoughts! For an eternity they seemed like an endless storm until now. Now they're finally calm.” She stood back onto her feet and took several steps back in trepidation. “I owe you nothing!” she shouted as she tore the gauntlet off his hand. “You do not need this!”

“Yes I do! Because of him.”

Nemesis flung her head to her left. She could see Alucard and his monstrous steed....

…......

The earlier Edward, still in the stargate's room, knelt down at the head of a fallen Borg.

“Doctor, if you're still there, somewhere in the Borg matrix, then you need to meet me. We will parlay at the entrance of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. I will only meet with you.”

Edward portalled himself to the entrance and met with the fake president and Lumen, informing them of his plan to meet with the Time-Lord. A metallic roaring in the air signalled the arrival of the TARDIS, a man clad in grey metal walked out of it. He retracted his helmet, showing the Doctor's cyborg head.

“There is no life anywhere except Earth in the future. The cause are those,” the Doctor pointed at the GemStones on Edward's hands, “they must be destroyed.”

“You should know better than that, without the stones there **is** no universe,” Edward said, severely as he raised his gauntlet-clad arm.

The fake president brandished a blade, slicing off Edward's right hand and dashing inside the Doctor's blue box. The Time-Lord himself marched back inside.

“Do you know where the Mind and Time gems are?” the president asked as he changed back into the Reality GemStone.

“Deliver the gems or be terminated,” the Doctor demanded.

“You have one at most, I have four.” she created duplicates of herself all around the console room, “know whether or not you're in a position to bargain.” One duplicate hit a switch, “that's 'fast-return', should take us to where you've stashed the Mind GemStone, shouldn't it?”

The Doctor extended a hand, embedded in the palm was the Mind Stone, he delivered an ultimatum, “I will begin a feedback loop of the stone's energies, soon the stone will destroy itself.”

“Really?” the red gem asked, faux-quizzically, “Infinite power, almost literally in your hand and you still want to destroy it?”

“The Borg do not bluff.” The jewel in his hand began to glow brighter and brighter until shattering into glittering dust.

**Chapter 27: The Plague On The Tree – Setting Fire To A Multiverse**

Edward sat on barren Earth, meditating and surrounded by a green glow. His right hand was missing the gauntlet. Above him, the stars swirled around him. They began to go out, one by one, as the years compressed into seconds. Gradually, the sky turned dark as only a handful of lights illuminated it. Standing in front of him was Nemesis.

“How long has it been?” He asked.

“Time means little to me. It seems to mean just as much to you, how can you sit here as your world lies dead?” Nemesis snapped at him.

“The universe at large seems to be dying, I think we feel the same. How is it being virtually alone again?” He asked.

“I'm not alone, even counting you. I've wiped those Borg creatures out,” her flippant manner shifted to despair, “but there's something else and I can't stop it. It's the two you showed me all that time ago, what are they? How do I kill them?”

“A ravenous swarm slowly devours the branches of a tree. The branches grow and multiply as does the horde, chewing down them. Eventually they will cease to grow and the horde will turn tail to consume the rest of the tree. For the sake of the trunk and the other branches, a fire must be lit where they began to feast, but what could set fire to a multiverse?” the future Edward asked Nemesis.

“Set fire to a multiverse?” Nemesis repeated in astonishment.

“Sadly a necessity. I've seen those two devour reality after reality. There's no recourse but to starve them.”

“But how do you set fire to a multiverse?” Nemesis repeated again.

Edward pointed to the gauntlet and then to his forehead.

“No, absolutely not!”

“And continue watching this reality die? Well, I anticipated this. You made two little mistakes in the big mistake of killing the universe; first, you killed the Doctor, second, you killed Veritas. If there's one thing the Doctor is good at it's rallying people, all he needs is a cue.”

Edward cast an orange energy on Nemesis.

“What are you doing? Stop this at once!”

“No! Absolutely not!” Edward stood up, clenching his fists tightly. “You recall that subroutine I embedded in the Mind GemStone? Well, you're about to fight a battle on _three_ fronts, because a sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body. Your soul and mind are about to become very unsound!”

The orange and light-blue gems on Nemesis' crown glowed brightly as cracks began to form on her body. Edward slowly walked up to her and took her gauntlet-clad hand. The Reality GemStone flashed briefly and the gauntlet dissolved into dust.

“You think that's going to stop me?” Edward asked, surprised at her gall.

The red gem flashed again and she began to dissolve like the gauntlet. Her crown fell to pieces causing the six GemStones to fall to the ground. One-by-one he picked them up and placed them all over the back of his right hand, slots opening up under each finger and on the back of his hand to accept them. As he embedded each gem, the energies each gem shot out grew in intensity, as he placed the light-blue gem on the back of his hand a brilliant burning sensation coursed through from his hand to his head as the gems attacked him.

“Unghf, mmm-, motherf-,” he groaned.

He opened a portal, through it he saw Alucard and his monstrous, insectoid steed. He walked through and confronted the vampire.

“Eddie-boy, here to repeat what the girl tried? She fought me quite valiantly, but nothing stuck. 'Infinite power' is quite disappointing when one crosses the bounds of reality; a two-dimensional ant crossing the length of a mobius strip will find no end, but we see the strip, we can give it a beginning and an end-”

“Yeah, and you see it as food, not caring that it was a home.”

“I ate the ant too,” Alucard grinned, “it's all the same when it's ether.”

“You're less of an ant; burn the strip and you'll survive-” Edward began.

“And fly off to another, I'm more like a plague of termites on a tree. I am the unit and the collective.”

“That must be a lot of mouths to feed, explains why you have to eat whole realities. I killed it once, I had connected my mind to as many alternative versions of myself as I could. All I had was the Mind stone at the time but it was enough, I delivered a near-death by a thousand cuts. I regret not being able to deliver the finishing blow, but you should've left it damn well alone!”

“You have nothing to punish me with.”

“And nothing is all I need.”

The corners of Alucard's mouth dropped.

Edward continued, “she threw everything at you, in the hopes that the rest of 'her' universe would be safe. Alas, her naivete took much time to dispel.”

The six Infinity GemStones glowed brightly on his hand... and then shattered. The ground beneath them vanished into oblivion. They floated in the middle of a void.

“I can go backwards in time, I can fly to another universe!” Alucard shouted directly into Edward's mind.

“You'll need to go through me, first.”

…....

In the TARDIS, the cloister bell began to toll. The Reality GemStone had dissolved into dust, leaving no trace, not even her gem. The doors opened and the embodiment of the Time GemStone floated through. The robotic Doctor turned to face her and shot a beam of energy at her. He and the beam froze. The beam receded into his hand and he turned back around and as he did, the green gem walked to the console.

“You will show yourself now, Edward.” she said, as if reading from a book.

“Only when you fix the Mind Gem,” they young man's disembodied voice said.

The Doctor extended his hand again and the glittering remains reassembled into the light-blue gem. Edward appeared from a cloud of crimson smoke.

“How are you feeling, greenie-meanie?” Ed asked her.

“As if the clouds have lifted.”

“You see how this ends, don't you?”

“Yes, I see endless strife, or oblivion.”

“Which do you choose?”

“Never oblivion!”

She extended her left arm and allowed Edward to pluck the green gem off her wrist. He then placed it under the thumb on his gauntlet. He then took the Mind GemStone off the frozen Doctor and placed it on the back of the metal glove. Streaks of energy shot out from his right hand, up his shoulder and into his head.

“Urrgh, motherf-” he growled as he strained to put his middle finger and thumb together. He snapped his fingers, burning his entire right arm and part of his neck. The Doctor dissolved into dust. He limped out of the TARDIS and into the void around the blue box. Floating in the void with him was Alucard, still in his gargoyle-like form, and his steed. Edward snapped the gauntlet again and the Earth reappeared underneath the two. They began to fall into the atmosphere, crashing down in the courtyard of a medieval Castle, it was the dead of night.

Alucard's companion regurgitated something charred and grey onto the dying grass. It slowly struggled onto its feet. Edward saw an antenna on its grey, insectoid head. He recognised it as his own armour, broken and missing in several places. Only the left-hand half of the helmet remained, the other Edward's face lie open to the elements. He lacked the skin covering his mouth, leaving his teeth exposed. His right-hand arm was missing below the shoulder. He staggered toward his earlier self. “Finish this,” the half-dead man urged. Edward clenched the gauntlet and the other Edward dissolved, his dust joined the grey earth.

Edward extended his gauntlet-covered hand again and clasped it, all six gems glowed again and floated out of the metal glove. Bodies began to form around each, transforming them into their personifications.

“You have our gratitude, Edward.” The Space stone said sincerely. Several cloudy portals opened....

**Chapter 28: The Storm Subsides**

Through one portal emerged the Titor; through another stood Veritas, brandishing her sword, shimmering brilliantly, next to her stood Thor holding Stormbreaker; through another flow a swarm of armoured Borg drones along with the Iron Man, none of which wasted time in beginning their assault on Alucard.

“Hey,

“Is my newest weapon ready yet?” Edward asked Veritas, who nodded. Edward deployed his larger armour and held one of his giant hands into the air, a flail attached to a knuckle-duster-like handle flew out of the portal and fit snugly around his fingers. The head of the flail dropped to the ground, a chain extended from within it to the handle.

Thor swung Stormbreaker down onto Alucard's head, sending him falling into the ground.

“First son of Odin! Get the hell out of there and let the Borg take care of them!” Edward bellowed.

“Borg? You mean 'metal man' and his friends?” the norse god asked, confused.

“Yes! And yet no! That's not Stark, now come here and lets discuss a plan of attack.”

Thor begrudgingly jogged over to where Edward, Veritas, Lumen and the six GemStones had gathered, they were joined by Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst and Steven.

“Alright, I'm pretty sure the blue girl tried to mind-control me, she's on our side now?” Thor asked.

“Yes.” Edward answered, turning to the former rebel gems. “I suggest you three, uh, four? Anyway, I suggest you fuse, stop that insectoid monster from eating anything at any cost. Either it starves or the universe dies, understood?”

Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl nodded.

“Ed's got a point, this isn't some corrupt gem, it's a single-minded beast that'll shatter us in it's belly.” Garnet observed.

“Where's the Doc, Odinson?” Ed asked.

“He's, well, off... fixing the damage we caused,” Thor answered sheepishly.

“Are we going to beat some ass or what?” the Power gem grumbled.

“Ahaha, I like her!” Thor commented.

Alucard dissolved into a white mist, his cloudy form rushed into the castle's zenith. In his place Edward saw a skeleton holding a scythe covered in a robe.

“'Death', you son-of-a-bitch. As if this day didn't give me enough bullshit already,” Edward fumed.

“You speak like you two are old friends,” Veritas commented.

“A mix of that and old enemies, I was childhood friends with his host.”

Edward extended the ball-and-chain weapon and threw the head at the reaper, passing harmlessly through it. From his forehead he fired several beams through the cloaked skeleton.

A circular burn, as if the air were a film being incinerated, appeared next to him and grew in size, only pitch blackness could be seen through it. Above it the air shimmered from the extreme heat being blasted from it, then a cloud of bats exploded forth. Dead humans and human-like beasts shambled out. The Borg horde turned to attack that which had crawled out of the pitch black abyss.

“You'll never harm him with simple material weapons,” the Soul GemStone advised as she quickly approached Death. The cloaked spirit tossed dozens of miniature scythes at the orange gem, who batted them away with a flurry of swipes. He sent a wave of fire towards her engulfing her entirely but failing to harm her. “With a strong enough spirit, even the fires of hell can bring one no harm.” She leapt into the air, her open hand began to glow, she delivered a chop to the reaper of death, his form split in two and dispersed.

The Space gem flung the Power gem into the highest tower on the castle, several seconds later it exploded and sent the mist flying out. The dark-blue gem condensed it back into Alucard's larger form. Thor took this opportunity to sink his axe deep into the vampire's side. Alucard's attempt to swipe at the Norse god was thwarted when Edward grabbed his arm and neck. Al knocked Thor back with a swipe of his feet and tried to claw at Ed but several crimson tendrils entangled his other limbs. The tendrils lead back into a portal, yellow in colour with energy sparkling off.

“The crimson bands, I'm afraid resisting them is most futile,” a rich male voice cautioned. Doctor Strange floated through the opening. “I wish I could say I came with friends but their hands are full at the moment.”

Alucard changed into mist again briefly before changing back into corporeal, and now human, form. The purple gem-woman came crashing through a brick wall out of the castle, caught sight of him and charged at him. He dodged an attempted grab from her and leapt over her, immediately after he landed he dug his fingers into the gem on her back and tore it out. He revealed his right hand, covered in a charred gauntlet. He placed the gem into a slot and aimed it at the Orange girl. Upon clenching it, the glove sent a streak of purple lightning at her, knocking her down. Then held it high and sent a wave all around him, blasting chunks of dirt into the air. From the churned earth emerged a legion of the undead, the group were now outnumbered. He dug his fingers into the orange gem's chest and drained the light from her before snatching the Soul GemStone.

A roaring noise filled the sky. Edward and his allies looked upwards to see fiery rocks falling onto them. The Space stone threw her arms in the air and halted their fall. More feiry projectiles flew out from Alucard's cape, impacting her and causing her to shatter. He flew over to the dark-blue jewel and scooped it up, he then placed it in his gauntlet next to the Soul gem.

He looked up to see the environment had changed drastically. He now stood in a brightly lit and grassy meadow. The Red gem stood opposite him. The sun high above them grew brighter and brighter.

“Foolish girl, the moment I took the gauntlet I had won. I am now in posession of spiritual energies which make me immune to the light of the sun,” he grinned. He then clenched his gauntlet.

“You win? That's not what she sees,” the red gem woman said as her gem siphoned into the gauntlet.

Alucard once again stood in the courtyard embroiled in chaos. A glowing orb of energy impacted the ground and blasted a whole in the ranks of Alucard's minions, a few dozen officers clad in red and holding phasers transported into the impact area. Edward looked up again to see the Titor flying over the castle. Alucard moved through a cloudy portal.

A scan of the area revealed to Edward that Alucard had transported himself to the depths of the castle. He blasted into the air, turned to face the ground and rocketed into the dirt. Edward crashed at the foot of a pile of gold. As he got up to his feet he saw Alucard grasping the light-blue gem in the pit of his right elbow, embedded in his gauntlet he saw the Time Gemstone. The face of the light-blue gem betrayed no fear or any emotion at all as he picked the jewel from her forehead.

“I thought you said the stones served no purpose,” Edward reminded him.

“You said you'd set the multiverse on fire, but all you did was pluck me out of it.”

“Easier to break all those eggs when they're in the one basket.”

“I bet that blue box helped as well, that'll be my next stop.” Alucard placed the Mind stone in the centre of the gauntlet. The gems sent streams of energy from his right hand to his head. His arm burned black. “Grrn, stings like a motherf-,” he grunted as he fell to his knees.

Edward retracted his larger armour, “Seems like the six girls came to the same conclusion I did; destroy you from the inside. I managed to use those six gems three times.”

“I only need to use it once!” Alucard moaned as he lifted his gauntlet-clad hand into the air.

“Good, end it, free not just you but _all_ of us,” Edward demanded.

Alucard pressed his middle finger and thumb together and as he did the energies surged more aggressively. He snapped his fingers.....

**Chapter 29: Snap Back**

Alucard stood heel-deep in orange water, gazing at the similarly orange sky. He heard the splashing of wet footsteps behind him. He turned to see a young blonde woman wearing a dull yellow uniform.

“What are you doing here, 'Police Girl'?” he asked.

“You missed me, didn't you?” she asked.

“I.. do not turn any ordinary humans.”

“Yeah, only the virgins,” she teased.

Alucard nodded and looked away, “Even as a vampire, I have never stopped desiring companionship.” He looked back and the 'Police Girl' was gone.

He awoke again to see his arm had shrivelled to a black husk and the gauntlet laying on the floor. Doctor Strange portalled in next to Edward, asking him, “What happened?”

“Beats me, he snapped but we're all still here, I think we won,” Edward answered cautiously, “Hey, Titor, do you read me? Can you relay the situation on the surface?” he radioed.

“This is Captain Sirrok of the Titor, all enemy combatants, including Borg have gone.”

“Even the big bug?”

“What? Oh, yes, even that,” the Romulan replied. “Also, something's falling down to your location, looks like a-, a blue box!?”

In the now-calm courtyard, the Doctor, emerged from his transport, lacking any trace of Borg technology on him, “Kino? Has anyone seen a young, uh, person? Wears goggles, long jacket, a hat?” He spotted something being beamed down next to him, a short human and a motorcycle, he immediately recognised them as Kino and Hermes. “Oh, thank goodness, you're ok!” he shouted ecstatically, running up to hug her.

“Is that really you, Doctor?” Kino asked solemnly. The Time Lord let go of her and looked her in the eye. “I think-, I think I need time to be able to believe that,” she said. He stood back and nodded, unable to look at her.

As he began to walk back to the TARDIS he was stopped by Edward and Doctor Strange, the latter carried the bejewelled and charred Infinity Gauntlet.

“Doctor,” Strange said.

“Doctor,” the Time Lord replied. He looked at the state of the gauntlet and he turned to Edward, noting his withered arm and his half-burned face, “looks like the power took its toll on you. I guess I should thank you for sparing me and straightening this whole mess out.”

“I recall killing you three times. I had five of the stones and decided to atomise you in case you thought of Earth as your home, then I shattered the Soul stone, which you were in, thirdly I reduced your Borg body to dust again. Of all people, it was Alucard who restored you. At no time did I feel satisfied, people learn a lot from dying, but so often they inherently fail to apply it, no surprise,” Edward said, frankly.

The time-traveller re-entered his vehicle and dematerialised it. Doctor Strange and Edward shook hands before he walked through a portal. Thor bear-hugged Edward before summoning the Bifrost, promising to send him a gift in the coming days. He opened a portal for the rebel gems to head back home through before opening one for himself, Veritas and Umbra.

Days later, Edward stood in his bedroom and examined the weapons he received from Nidavellir. “All this dwarven steel, hardly did a damned thing to help,” he lamented. He reached out with his right hand to the katana handle, still cracked from the Power gem's energ. His right arm began to shake as he took the katana handle. He tried to extend its blade but failed. He then took out another blade of his, the A.I. Blade and began to ponder.

“What are you thinking?” Veritas asked.

“I'm wondering if the dwarfs will appreciate me coming back there, I seem to cause them a lot of trouble.”

“Your assumptions will cause you the most trouble,” Lumen advised.

Edward nodded slightly. The sound of a rush of wind distracted the three of them. Upon investigating the noise, they found a case sitting atop burnt grass in the backyard. He opened it to see a small scrap of parchment, a handle with a sling, and dozens of pieces of broken metal. Edward cast a green glow on the handle and metal fragments and, to his amazement, they recombined into a hammer, “Good god, did he just give me 'Mjolnir'?”

“Typical, never reading the instructions first,” Veritas playfully admonished.

Edward rolled his eyes and unrolled the paper. It read:

“Men and gods alike all ask themselves if they are the evil that needs to be fought. Nothing can drive them to suffering like taking those that have faith in them and pushing them away. This hammer I lost twice, once when my father exiled me, and again when my older sister attacked. I have outgrown Mjolnir, it's a reminder of bad times. As someone who appreciates drarven craft, even broken, I'm sure you will appreciate it more than I will.”

He gripped it with his right hand. As he pulled a sting shot up his arm.

**Epilogue**

The Doctor found himself between six glass tubes, each containing identical white-haired young men suspended in liquid, and heavily armed black-clad soldiers.

“I should advise you that you're simply too late,” he said, “and on _so_ many accounts. See, I've already leaked a good deal of this lab's files on the deep web. Sure, most people will cry 'hoax!' and 'fake' but, by my reckoning I have your bosses and their running around like the proverbial headless.”

“Open fire,” a gunman ordered. The group fired upon the cocky interloper but left no mark on him. He vanished in a puff of red mist, along with the glass and fluid on one of the tubes. The white-haired men changed into the living Infinity GemStones. The other five tubes smashed open. The gunmen opened fire again filling the air with furiously spinning bullets suspended in the air.

“Don't kill anyone!” the Doctor demanded, his voice coming from speakers in the ceiling.

A cloudy portal opened up behind the armed officers. The purple gem girl shoved one, sending them flying through.

“You are free to leave here unharmed, I can make no such guarantee if you stay, however,” the dark-blue girl said. The suspended bullets dropped to the ground

“Alert! This facility's self-destruct has been activated. You have one minute to reach minimum safe distance,” the PA system announced.

The gunmen looked at each other, one shouted “Go!” repeatedly and sprinted through the portal, the others ran behind him.

“Wow, red, that fake announcement nearly scared the life out of me,” the doctor said as he walked through a door. “Are all of you alright to head off on your own?”

“My green sister and I have appraised the other four of their previous lives, she and I know you will require assistance to leave here,” the light-blue girl said.

Her dark-blue sister nodded and opened up several small portals, one next to the Doctor. “This will take you back to the Titor but there is something you need to see.” She teleported next to him and placed a hand over his eyes.

He saw Sirrok standing at the edge of the holodeck, holding a data stick in his hand. He placed it into the slot of a console on the wall. “Scanning...” a computerised voice said as a line of light combed over the captain. “Captain's identity confirmed, no unauthorised personnel are present. Initiating high-encrytion transmission.” A black shilhouette appeared in the middle of the room.

“Alpha, platinum, four-three-one-eight,” it's distorted voice said.

“Code confirmed.” the computerised voice said.

A uniform, resembling the captain's but pitch black in colour became visible on the standing shadow, it said, “According to our historical record, you would have recently been present at a battle involving the personifications of the Infinity GemStones, can you confirm?”

“I can, can't you show your face?” Sirrok asked.

“As you are not a citizen of the Federation, certain discretionary measures have to be taken, your computer has already confirmed that I am with Section 31 and have full authority in Starfleet affairs.” Sirrok nodded but sighed as well. “The persons of interest; Edward Orson and the consultant simply known as 'the Doctor' will now have been made aware of your existence. Neither of them must be allowed to interfere in the formation of Starfleet, the Federation and Section 31. This is to be done by any means necessary. We have sent you heavily encrypted files on our counterparts of this epoch, this century is a tumultuous time, even for them. They and their interests are to be maintained. Should they request your co-operation, you are expected to comply.”

“But what of the Prime Directives?” Sirrok inquired.

“Disregard. May the father of understanding guide us. Out.” The hologram vanished.

…...

Two young men emerged into a large rocky cavern, dimly lit by the flow of lava. On their heads glowing blue lines could be seen, one had jet black hair shaved at the sides like a flattened mohawk, the other had auburn hair, evenly lengthed. The two ascended a large incline that dropped off into a cliff

Once on the top the auburn-haired man turned to the other and said, “Even in the depths of hell, finding a way up is difficult, but not impossible.”

“Even if we make it out of here, I will not be so quick to trust you. It was arrogant of you to think you could control a micronation like Vivacia,” the other low-key berated him.

A third voice, booming and deep reverberated through the vast walls and ceiling, “This is no mere niche of hell, humans. You stand in the domain of Trigiston.” From beside the cliff emerged a gargantuan red demon, horns protruding between oily black hair, eyes two-by-two.

“Then you must be he who is in charge!” the auburn man greeted brightly. “How may we be of assistance?”

“Not long ago, several disturbances swept my realm. I traced them back to the mortal plane, a world called Earth,” the demon regaled.

“Ah we're most fam-” the auburn man said.

“Be silent! A spirit opened up a portal to where you call 'Hell' allowing me a glimpse of the cause.” An apparition of a young man appeared between the demon and the two humans. “Do you know this man?”

Silence blanketed the cavern before the black-haired man spoke up, “he is known to my associates. His name is Edward Orson.”

“I will send my disciples to meet your people, I will need their names. You may speak now, human.”

“My name is Robert Page. But, please, call me Bob.”

**TO BE CONTINUED IN: 'Edward Orson and the Crimson Claws'**


End file.
